Disney Universe is an action packed puzzle solving game published by Disney Interactive Studios that came out in 2011. It was released for the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, as well as for Microsoft Windows, though I haven't had a chance to play the PS3 or Windows version. My experience with this game was on the XBox, which was new for me as I'd never used the console before. Getting used to the unfamiliar controller took me a bit and even with this game being primarily a button masher type, I still had to remember how to knock bad guys back, pick up items and run around all at the same time.
Unlike most Disney games that I'm familiar with, Disney Universe doesn't appear to have any sort of plot. The player, or players if you're playing co-op, is represented by an oddly colored, big headed creature that enjoys dressing up as various Disney characters. Gender apparently doesn't matter to these blue, green, purple and yellow beings as your character can jump around as Donald Duck, Tinker Bell, Stitch or Rapunzel without any noticeable differences to the player avatar. The game starts with a set of fifteen various Disney characters for players to dress up as and more character costumes are unlocked when creatures wearing the new costumes are rescued from world stages. The new unlocked costumes have to be purchased with in-game currency, though I doubt anyone ever had to worry about not being able to afford the character they wanted. The gold needed is generously dispersed when solving puzzles, winning mini games and defeating enemies, as well as being sprinkled about levels.
Where gameplay is concerned, as I've previously mentioned, there's little more to do than button mash. Bad guys come out during various stages, you mash buttons to beat them up and collect coins, and occasionally the player will need to figure out how to progress through the various stages by solving simple puzzles. Every stage offers additional mini games that offer more coins as prizes. These became incredibly repetitive after the first five or so as there only seem to be about three different kinds of mini games; defeat something, collect more gold than the other players or run amok and try to avoid getting hit with projectiles.
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| Donald and Pumbaa in the Lion King stage. Screencap taken from a playthrough by CoinOpTV on YouTube. |
When I played, I had other people on my team and therefore cases where one player needed to stand on a platform while another character turned a lever were easily handled. I remember a few times when I wondered how on earth anyone playing single player could possibly solve puzzles like that without the assistance of a team mate. After checking out videos of single player gameplay, I am disappointed to report that the puzzles aren't any different at all, they just require more speed. Instead of having someone hold the lever, a short timer starts ticking and you have a few seconds to turn it yourself and then get up on that platform. Failure requires running back to the lever to try again. Honestly, the entire game seems to lose a bit of fun if played solo.
My group played for maybe two hours and we finished four out of the five default available worlds. I'm sure with another half hour we could have easily defeated the game. That makes buying Disney Universe seem like a bad idea, given that the game takes virtually no time at all to breeze through. I'm assuming that's why DLC, or downloadable content, was made available. Through the online shops on the Wii, Xbox or Playstation, players can purchase "packs" of content, offering more costumes and stages to play with. Personally, I'm not a fan of the necessity to buy more content to keep a game interesting.
Rating:
Demographic: 8+ years, boys and girls.
System(s): Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC.
Players: 1 - 4
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